World record Monopoly accepted by Guinness World Records (video)

The world record for playing Monopoly on the world’s largest board has been accepted and published on the website of the Guinness World Records. On 30 November, student society Ceres took up the challenge to break the previous record. ‘It’s awesome to see that it’s really on the website’, says Janneke Sloet van Oldruitenborgh, president of Ceres.

The previous Guinness World Record was in the hands of a school in California since last January. They had played on a 744 square metres board to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the game. In Wageningen, the students played on a board 30 by 30 metres in size. Which was good enough for a new official record. ‘The certificate has already been given a prominent spot in our office; we are very happy with it’, says Janneke.

Toy manufacturer Hasbro Benelux challenged Dutch and Belgian student societies to push the record to 900 square metres. The society with the most fun idea and the best motivation was given the chance to take up the challenge. Ceres won that race. ‘For a moment, it was nerve wrecking, as we had to wait for confirmation whether the board was truly big enough. Once we knew it was the case, the tension disappeared and we were free to enjoy playing the game’, tells Janneke.

The requirement was to play the game for at least half an hour on the world’s largest board, which had to be an official edition of the board game. The game was played on the running track of De Bongerd. ‘It’s really nice that the record attempt received so much attention, not just for us, but also for the entire university and city of Wageningen.’